Have you ever wondered what type of feminist you are? The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a quiz to see how your perspectives on feminism match up against the rest of the country. To create the quiz, they used results from The Washington Post's poll on what Americans think of feminism in this day and age. The results of the original poll, which was conducted via phone and surveyed roughly 1,600 people, were pretty interesting: While six out of 10 women polled identified as feminists, for example, four out of 10 people see the feminist movement as "angry."
Of course, from the get-go, we have to remind ourselves that feminism is a big and diverse world of theory and practice, and the word "feminist" has different meanings for different people. That said, in my own opinion, I think the feminist movement is an important one. I think we still have a lot of work left to do in terms of achieving gender equality, and that as a movement, feminism still has more work to do to become more inclusive and intersectional.
I decided to take the quiz myself and see how it worked. If you want to take it yourself, it's very quick and straight-forward — although as a heads up, this "quiz" doesn't actually give you an end result. That is to say, there is no ranking or categorization based on your answers, which I actually think is a good thing. Your "quiz results" simply show how your individual answers compare to those polled. Here are my responses, and how the quiz says I hold up in comparison:
1. Do You Consider Yourself a Feminist?
As you can see above, I definitely do. The "f word" is not a label I shy away from. For myself, personally, I think it's important to openly identify as a feminist. Results show, however, that the most popular response from those polled was to identify as "not a feminist."
2. Is Feminism Outdated?
Admittedly, this question gave me a bit of pause. I don't think feminism in the United States is "outdated," but I do think the feminist movement needs to continue to make an effort to become more inclusive and intersectional. I took the question at face value, however, and it appears the majority of people agree with me.
3. Do Women Choose Inequality?
Personally, I think the structural and systematic oppression of women is absolutely what keeps women from achieving full equality with men. I think this is especially true for women of color, transgender women, and other minority women. However, it seems the results are pretty split on this one: While 42 percent of people polled believe discrimination against women keeps them from achieving full equality, a whopping 45 percent believe it's a choice women make.
4. Do Feminists Unfairly Blame Men?
For me, the goal of feminism is not to point fingers or "blame" any individual or group. Luckily, nearly half of people polled agree with me in believing that feminism does not unfairly blame men. On the other hand, this means roughly half of people believe feminism unfairly blames men for women's challenges. This is a scenario where education and outreach about what feminism is may be helpful.
5. When Should Abortion Be Legal?
I thought the wording of this question was a little bit tricky, because we don't know what "most cases" entail, but I went with my gut and selected "legal in all cases." It appears that the most common response was "legal in most cases" which pleasantly surprised me. That said, there are still some people who identify as pro-life feminists. While I am very pro-choice myself, I think it's important to not dismiss someone as a feminist because of their perspective on any one particular issue.
6. Does Feminism Affect Your Voting Habits?
I'm not going to lie — the majority response to this question surprised me. For me, a candidate's position on women's rights is a huge deciding factor on whether or not I'll vote for them. It appears I'm in the minority, however, as 65 percent of people polled have not voted for a candidate based on their position on women's rights.
7. Where Do Most of Your Political Views Fit?
While I identified as a "liberal," it appears the majority of Americans polled identified as a "moderate." There are many people who identify as conservative feminists, though, so taking part of the feminist movement doesn't necessarily mean you have to vote a certain way, or back a certain political party.
While there is no end result to this quiz, I think my answers confirm what I'd previously thought about myself as a feminist. For me, feminism is very political, as it does effect my voting habits and my political leanings; I also place a high value on activism in feminism, as I have a strong interest in women's rights, like access to safe abortions. Additionally, I think it's quite important to call "feminism" feminism.
All in all, I thought this quiz was a fun way to see how my views align with other people's. Feminism is a very broad subject, so I don't think these questions are the definitive list of whether or not you're a "real" feminist. Regardless to how you stack up compared to those polled, I think it's always good to ask yourself questions about your own views and perspectives, and spend some time reflecting on your mindset and value system. At the end of the day, though, no quiz should dictate whether or not you identify as a feminist: that's your decision to make.
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